TV: Did you know? Shaq, Sir Charles & the downtown S.A. smackdown

Hey San Antonio, answer this question: Even though he played and won a high school championship here, wasn’t Shaquille O’Neal one of the most hated players by Spurs fans back in his playing days?

O’Neal, who’s had more nicknames than Dr. Johnny Fever (Shaq Daddy, Shaq Fu, Shaq Diesel, The Big Aristotle, The Big Cactus and The Big Shamrock to name a few), is praised by WOAI-TV 4’s Don Harris for defending this city’s honor against his on-air colleague Charles Barkley.

Harris, the veteran sports anchor/director for the NBC affiliate, and O’Neal go way back. Harris was the first reporter to interview O’Neal on TV during his Cole High School days at Fort Sam Houston in the late 1980s.

Harris talked to O’Neal Sunday about his Alamo City defense and showed the tape on Monday newscasts.

Their exchange went something like this:

O’Neal: “I’m not a Spurs hater.”

Harris: “You’re a lover.”

O’Neal: “Especially since I’m the first of the greatest big men to ever walk the lands of San Antonio, Texas. Me, David (Robinson), then Tim (Duncan).”

Harris: “Do you find it weird that San Antonio now loves you for sticking up to Charles for this whole thing about the River Walk and women?”

O’Neal: “Well, they really love me anyway because I was the first of the greatest big men to roam the lands of San Antonio, OK?”

Harris: “We love you.” (chuckling can be overheard)

O’Neal: “There are two big attractions in San Antonio. The Alamo, then me.” (Laughter breaks out)

By the way, O’Neal, along with ESPN’s Skip Bayless, both predicted at the start of the season that the Spurs would be in the NBA Finals. Take a look at the proof.

Now, about that headline.

If this blog was a TV show, that Shaq & Sir Charles headline would be called a “tease.”

If you’ve still reading this post, here’s the payoff.

TNT’s “Inside the NBA” coordinating producer Tim Kiely had a blog at NBA.com a few years ago and would share behind-the-scenes shenanigans about life at Turner Sports.

The playful banter between Barkley and O’Neal existed long before they were paired on TV together last December.

Here are Kiely’s exact words about the “smackdown” between the two in downtown San Antonio. This blog’s best guess is this happened late Monday, May 21 or in the early morning hours of Tuesday, May 22, 2001:

One year, we were in San Antonio, covering the Western Conference Finals between the Lakers and the Spurs. The Lakers had won, and a bunch of us were going out to San Antonio’s famed Riverwalk for a beer and something to eat.

Charles was leading the charge as we walked down the street. A long limo cruised by slowly. As it passed us, someone in the car started yelling nasty stuff at Charles. I remember thinking, “Uh oh, here we go.”

I swung around to see what was coming our way. Let me put it this way, if you really want to know what it was like when dinosaurs roamed the earth, this sight was a close facsimile. Shaquille O’Neal roared out of the back seat of the car, and chased Charles all around the parking lot, finally jumping on his back. The two monsters wrassled playfully for a couple of minutes, and Shaq left.

The asphalt in the parking lot took a beating.

Just a suggestion, TNT has an associate producer, Alex Houvouras, who’s the creator of the “Gone Fishin'” graphics and master of the paintbox (a video version of Photoshop).

Mr. Kiely, is there any chance you could have Mr. Houvouras work up a re-enactment of the Alamo City throwdown on Tuesday’s postgame?

Also, during Sunday’s postgame, the San Antonio Convention and Visitors Bureau gave the crew a gift basket welcoming them to town. On-air, it was said the basket was address to “T.K.”

The question is: was Kiely able to wrestle it away from E.J., Kenny “The Jet”, the Chuckster and Dr. O’Neal?